Tag Archives: 2011 postseason

You might be looking for some positive baseball news these days, so how about a trip back to the evening of Sunday, Oct. 16, 2011? That’s when the St. Louis Cardinals won their 18th National League pennant by beating the Milwaukee Brewers in those games that filled the time between the classic National League Division Series and even more classic World Series.

I honestly don’t remember much about the 2011 NLCS, other than the October Legend of David Freese had its first chapters, as he was named series MVP, and all of the relievers got a lot of use, and also deserved to be named series MVP. And maybe that’s fine. Scrolling back through the posts from the series and seeing names like Prince Fielder and Ryan Braun and Nyjer Morgan — ugh. So much better to remember the Rally Squirrel instead. And, of course, a pennant-clinching win.

Especially because we remember what happened in the days to follow.

Believe It! Cardinals Are In The World Series!

Photo: StLToday.com

We’re always told to never give up, always keep trying, you never know how things will work out.

If you ever question whether that’s true or not, you now have the perfect example of what not giving up can get you.

The National League pennant.

It bears repeating again and again — the 2011 St. Louis Cardinals are National League champions! Next happy flight: home to host the Texas Rangers in game one of the World Series on Wednesday!

It’s the Cardinals’ 18th NL pennant, and their third trip to the World Series since 2004. They’ll be going for their 11th World Series title — #11in11 as those of us on Twitter have seen so often — and will take on a Rangers team that’s making their second (and second consecutive) trip to the Series.

And while it’s been quite a ride since Aug. 25, last night was perhaps the wildest of them all.

The setting for the National League Division Series now shifts to Chicago’s North Side, with Game 3 starting later today at 5 p.m. Central Time.

As you’re no doubt aware, it’s The Jake Arrieta Show!!! — meaning why are the Cardinals even bothering to play today, right? Shouldn’t they just forfeit and go have a nice team dinner instead — especially since, according to a stat I heard Matt Vasgersian spout off before yesterday’s Game 3 in the American League Division Series between the Royals and Astros — the team that wins Game 3 takes the entire series 80 percent of the time?

Statistics … they’re great.

Given that the Cardinals have a recent postseason history to look back on, we can also see just how that 80 percent stat holds up for our Redbirds — especially helpful considering the Cards won all four series.

Against the Dodgers in last year’s NLDS, they won Game 3 with Kolten Wong’s seventh inning 2-run homer putting them ahead, 3-1.

In 2013, Game 3 was in Pittsburgh, with Joe Kelly starting against Francisco Liriano … who was pretty unbeatable at home then, if you remember. Neither of the starters factored in the final outcome — a 5-3 Pittsburgh win.

Looking back to 2012 and the NLDS against the Nationals, Game 3 was a start by Chris Carpenter against Edwin Jackson — and Edwin was kind to his old teammates from the previous year. The Cards easily won 8-0.

Then there’s 2011. Game 3 was the first at Busch Stadium of the series, with the Phillies taking this one 3-2. All of the Phillies runs came on a home run by Ben Francisco, pinch-hitting for Cole Hamels in the seventh inning, off Jaime Garcia.

In summary, in their four-year run of winning the division series and advancing to the NLCS, the Cardinals have won Game 3 twice — then gone on to lose the NLCS. They’ve lost Game 3 twice, obviously still advanced to the NLCS, won the National League pennant each year, and then both won and lost the World Series.

So when all the hype kicks in about The Jake Arrieta Show!!! during the game (which I’ll definitely have the television muted for), just remember that losing this game isn’t necessarily doom and gloom for the Cardinals — despite any statistics the announcers (or Cubs fans) might spout off.

Yes, September has become the St. Louis Cardinals month in recent years. That, of course, has led them right into October baseball for the past three seasons. And, at this stage, it would take something beyond extraordinary for that streak to not reach four straight years — the magic number for playing in the postseason is now just one. [UPDATE: Thanks to the Pirates beating the Brewers this afternoon 1-0, the Cards are officially in!]

Last night’s 8-4 Cardinals victory over the Reds was their 14th win this month, to go with just five losses. Speaking of five, that’s the magic number for clinching the NL Central — and it’s the magic number that means something, since it guarantees playing in the division series. Only seven games remain in September, yet the Cards still have just a 3 1/2 game lead over the second-place Pirates. They’ve had a good September as well, going 12-6 thus far, which is why the Cards’ magic number isn’t decreasing as quickly as it could.

Still, this month has been the Cardinals’ time to shine going back to the “September to remember” in 2011. Continue reading →

Three years ago, the Cardinals began today with a record of 67-63 after being swept by the National League West’s fourth place Dodgers. The Cards were second in the National League Central to the Brewers, 10 games back, and third in the wild card standings, 10.5 games behind the Braves and one game behind the Giants.

Yet one thing seems to be forgotten in all our giddiness and our magical memories of Happy Flights and reaching October and the incredible ride that culminated in glorious World Championship No. 11 in ’11.

The Braves.

It’s so easy to forget the absolutely vital role the Braves played in making it all possible for the Cardinals.

What was expected was made official yesterday afternoon, with the announcement of Chris Carpenter’s retirement. Even though we haven’t seen him pitch on a big league mound since October 2012 and attempt to pitch anywhere since July when he was in Memphis, it’s still a sad day.

But we all knew it was coming — probably no one as much as Chris himself.

That’s why it was great to see him with the team this season after his own comeback attempt ended in late July. He was there, on the road and at home, with his watchful gaze focused on his young teammates — here he is in Pittsburgh on Sept. 1, watching Joe Kelly — offering advice and encouragement and likely preparing for a coaching future. And what a crop of kids he had the chance to view up close and mentor this season.

Yet it certainly looked like he was just enjoying being part of a team one last time as a player too.

There were tweets from Derrick Goold and others about him taking grounders in the infield during batting practice. In Pittsburgh on Sept. 1, he was very much interested in just where the hot dogs the Parrot was shooting into the crowd ended up — as you can see here. (Yes, he really was that serious about watching flying hot dogs.) But even that was cool to see. Taking in the experiences, enjoying the moments especially since the Cards didn’t know then it wouldn’t be their last trip to PNC Park for the year. (And, yes, I did watch the game that day … but also obviously spent time watching Chris. How could I not? He was right there.)

There have been the glimpses of him in the Cardinals dugout from time to time during the Cardinals broadcasts, of course, plus he was featured prominently in a great USA Today piece by Bob Nightengale on Sept. 26, “Game in ’11 ‘changed everything’ for two teams.”